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JONBENÉT KILLING ATTRACTS FOLLOWING OF INTERNET USERS

The nation’s obsession with computers and the JonBenét Ramsey slaying have converged on the Internet.

At least 30 Web pages have sprung up, offering information, speculation and photographs related to the 6-year-old Boulder girl’s death.

One is sponsored by a Kenosha, Wis., alderman and police detective. Another is an informal poll on who committed the crime. A “scientific laboratory” has a page analyzing John and Patsy Ramsey’s use of words during their interview on CNN.

—Burt Hubbard

Rocky Mountain News, April 13, 1997

Nine months before JonBenét was murdered, the company I worked for was absorbed by a conglomerate. I found myself retired at forty. I became a voracious reader of nonfiction, taught myself to bake excellent French bread, and wall-papered the master bath. And I discovered the Internet. I surfed the Net in earnest, but with no real goal—just for information. I was in the kitchen washing dishes when I heard about JonBenét’s murder on the radio. The next morning I found Denver-area newspapers on-line and read about the case. One of those papers, the Daily Camera, already had a bulletin board devoted to JonBenét’s murder. I joined dozens of people on-line who followed the case on a daily basis. It was almost like joining other kids on a playground. Those of us who had been around longer would be irritated by “newbies,” who would surf in, post something like “I think the older brother did it,” and then have the gall to be offended when we verbally ripped them to shreds.

I was amazed by the lack of curiosity. Many people on-line showed no motivation to seek out facts on the case. As an early riser, and with the added benefit of being on the East Coast, I took it upon myself to inform people. Each morning I would get up and go straight to the computer. I had a route that took me to each of the major dailies that could be counted on to have Ramsey stories. I looked at over thirty-five Web sites that I maintained as bookmarks on my hard drive. When there was interesting information, I posted the Web address, along with a one-sentence synopsis of the item, on the Boulder News Forum. Others needed only to look at my morning posting to find out what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Then I began my route again in preparation for the next day’s postings. My friends were counting on me. I had a goal.

It’s not always easy on-line. In the summer of 1997 our community of bored housewives on the Boulder forum was invaded. The hackers harassed us and made it impossible for our discussions to continue. It was a difficult experience. But if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have my Web page. Because the hackers made it tough for people to find my daily postings, a benefactor offered to set me up with my own Web page. Mrs. Brady’s URLs, as the page is called, gets about 750 hits a day.

Several news articles about Internet interest in the case quoted psychiatrists saying we “had no life.” But later articles were more accurate. One even noted how the Boulder County District Attorney’s office and the Boulder Police Department used the Internet community as a resource.

We weren’t just kooks with nothing else to do. We had a genuine interest in the case.

There is still bickering in our cybercommunity. Theories are still debated, and rumors abound. But the crusade continues, and newbies are still arriving. I just got an e-mail from a new computer owner, who says that one of the reasons he/she bought the computer was to stay abreast of the Ramsey investigation with other interested parties. “Let me know how I can have an ongoing chat with other interested sleuths regarding this case,” the e-mail said.

—Mrs. Brady

After much agonizing, Alex Hunter and Bill Wise finally decided that too much of their time was being taken up by the press. They needed an experienced press representative who understood the criminal justice system and could get along with reporters, write press releases, and